2016 in Retrospect

2016 has finally come to an end and what a year it has been. I know it has been a hard year for a lot of you, but for me, 2016 was a year of change. My word for 2016 was change and what a year of change it was. I moved to Hamilton to start my Bachelor of Music at Vision College, made a whole lot of new friends, learned new things about being myself, independence and my relationship with God. Overall 2016 wasn’t as hard for me as it was for some others but I’ll take what I am given and be at peace with what was taken from my life. Thanks for all your support and let’s come into this new year with thanksgiving for what we have! Here is a roundup for 2016.

Top Blog Posts

I wrote this post in February 2016 and it blew up big time in June and July to become my most-read post on the blog. I will be doing an updated post of my current cruelty-free skincare in February 2017 to show you what has changed in the past year.

It seems that my being honest about the background of a product and how it fitted into my ethical views was quite popular this year too. I wrote this review in October 2015, and although it was mainly a positive review I didn’t like the way one of its ingredients was sourced.

This post just keeps coming back each year and since I wrote it has been in my top posts. I created this Flamenco Makeup tutorial as a part of my Spanish month back in October 2014. I guess you guys like it so much that I might just do something like my themed month again this year.

Since I started my cruelty-free journey I knew exactly what product I was going to use if I ever dyed my hair. I am a huge Lush Addict and it was a simple choice to use their henna whenever I wanted to dye my hair. I wrote this review in November 2015 and I think it’s helped a few people out!

This posts probably marks one of my most exciting moments of the year. Firstly, I am so thankful to have a relationship with Hachette NZ, the publishing company who publishes J. K. Rowling. Secondly, it was a new piece of work that gave me a look into the world of Harry Potter.

A photo posted by Sarah-Elizabeth (@spanishbluebell) on Dec 31, 2016 at 8:05pm PST

Milestones

Got my restricted license

Moved to Hamilton

Commenced my Bachelor of Music at Vision College

Celebrated the Spanish Bluebell’s 3rd birthday

Started Sarah Single Music

Entertainment

This year was a pretty great year entertainment wise. Some pretty awesome movies, books and music came out and I dug out a few older ones to enjoy too. I was privileged to watch a few Christian musicians live, including Dan Bremnes, Strahan, SINAI and Aaron//David (whose video EP will be coming out 2017). I was also pretty excited by the release of Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them and Me Before You. TV wise I got a bit addicted to watching Heartland, Call the Midwife and A Place to Call Home. I also had a great time getting my first taste of what it is like to be on tour with Vision College’s annual school tour and Showcase.

Some new music artist I discovered this year were Johnnyswim, Dan Bremmes (who I got to see live with Strahan, a local Kiwi artist), Gregory Porter (such amazing jazz tunes), Red Rocks Worship (whose song Remedy was my anthem for a good part of 2016), King Charles, Sleeping With Sirens, and Worship Central (whose song Centre My Heart I covered on Youtube) to name a few. I also really enjoyed listening to the soundtrack for the Waitress Musical by Sara Bareilles. One of my friends at the hostel and I connected through music because of this soundtrack when she heard it playing through my window.

A lot of great books were released in 2016 and I was lucky enough to be sent some from Hachette NZ.